Winners

Best equity strategy hedge fund

* WINNER *

Trafalgar Trading Fund
Trafalgar Capital Management

Our winner employs a long/short approach to equity investments, investing mainly in Asia (including Australia and Japan) as well as in Europe. The investment portfolio is constructed to identify and capture stock-specific trading opportunities, catalysts, with low correlation to the overall market. 

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Best fundamental growth/value hedge fund

* WINNER *

Talomon Value Fund
Talomon Capital 

The winning investment team’s core philosophy is to invest in publicly listed mid-cap companies primarily in Europe, looking to understand each investment and the industry and market trends that apply to them on a deep operational level. The team carries out proprietary primary and secondary research to evaluate new investments and monitor existing ones.

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Best event driven hedge fund

* WINNER *

Lumyna – York Asian Event-Driven UCITS Fund
Lumyna Investments 

The winner’s investment approach couples fundamental, research-driven financial and business analysis with an experienced view of market and industry trends. The firm employs a rigorous, research-intensive due diligence process with an emphasis on business fundamentals, information quality and risk-return trade-off to develop a well-informed view of each potential investment opportunity. 

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Best global macro hedge fund 

* WINNER *

GAM Systematic Core Macro
GAM Systematic 

The winning fund has been designed to use the team’s existing and proven infrastructure to give investors access to a diversified stream of systematically harvested returns within the macro sector. 
by our team of scientists. The core of the fund’s approach is multi-strategy and multi-asset. 

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Best fixed income/credit/distressed hedge fund 

* WINNER *

Waha CEEMEA Credit Fund SP
Waha Investment

The wining fund targets an absolute return throughout market cycles by seeking relative value opportunities across its selected markets and employs a long/short strategy to express those views. The fund focuses on finding relative value opportunities in credit and does not take a view on underlying interest rates or any currency outside of US dollar.

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Best private credit/non-bank lending hedge fund 

* WINNER *

Fasanara Alternative Credit Fund
Fasanara Capital

Our winner is the market champion in Europe in fintech-originated short-dated corporate receivables, with the longest track record available for the asset class (six years) and total lending to small and medium sized enterprises of €5bn, employing machine learning to take instantaneous credit decisions. 

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Best managed futures/CTA hedge fund 

* WINNER *

GAM Systematic Multi-Strategy
GAM Systematic 

Our winner runs a systematic multi-strategy investment programme combining multiple investment strategies grouped around five uncorrelated return sources: trend following; value/carry; short term; diversifiers; and equity market neutral cash equities. 

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Best foreign exchange hedge fund

* WINNER *

dbSelect Hathersage Long Term Currency Strategy
Hathersage Capital Management 

The wining firm implements strategic intermediate term global macro views using G10 currency pairs. Thematic trade ideas are developed based on a fundamental analysis of economic relationships, political events and financial market expectations. 

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Best emerging markets focused hedge fund 

* WINNER *

GoldenTree Emerging Markets Fund
GoldenTree Asset Management 

Our winner aims to deliver attractive risk adjusted returns across market cycles by identifying the most attractive opportunities in the emerging market debt universe. The fund runs a concentrated portfolio with a focus on high conviction country exposures. 

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Best niche hedge fund 

* WINNER *

Fasanara Alternative Credit Fund
Fasanara Capital

The winning fund employs a unique strategy with a high cash yield that exploits a niche in the European short-term corporate receivables market. The aim of the fund is to transform the complexity of the asset class into a competitive advantage and to build a best-practice market standard all across.

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Best sub-$100m hedge fund

* WINNER *

CARN Long Short Fund
Carn Capital 

This winning fund focuses on fundamental stock picking. The manager looks for under-researched companies and finds pricing inefficiencies typically within the small- and mid-cap segments. The fund follows a Nordic focus equity long/short strategy that seeks to generate superior returns from stock selection underpinned by deep fundamental analysis and a long-term investment horizon.

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Hedge fund of the year

* WINNER *

The Value Active Fund
Varenne Capital Partners

This year’s winning fund combines complementary investment frameworks – long equity, short equity, merger arbitrage and tail risk hedging – in a single strategy. Long equity is the backbone of the fund. Short equity is used for performance generation purposes: it is not a hedge of the long part of the portfolio. Merger arb brings decorrelation from equity. The tail risk hedging aims to protect the portfolio against extreme market events.

Best equity strategy emerging manager

* WINNER *

Lumyna - Sandbar Global Equity Market Neutral Ucits Fund
Lumyna Investments

Our winner operates a global equity fundamental market neutral investment strategy with low market correlation. The investment process combines bottom-up fundamental analysis and macro sensitivity to optimise risk/reward profile of returns on a repeatable basis.

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Best managed futures/CTA emerging manager

* WINNER *

Florin Court Capital Programme
Florin Court Capital 

The winner for this category is an alternative-market CTA with extensive emerging markets exposure. Trading operationally complex markets (such as emerging markets interest rate swaps and foreign exchange, Chinese commodities and global electricity/coal) and is active in over 300 markets seldom accessed by peers.

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Best global macro emerging manager

* WINNER *

Investin Othania Etisk Formuevækst 
Othania

Our wining manager uses a proprietary investment model to allocate capital either into equity or bond ETFs on a monthly basis. The investment model uses indicators on economic activity, interest rates and stock market movements to determine whether to allocate the assets under management to equity or bond ETFs.

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Best multi-strategy emerging manager

* WINNER *

VIA Absolute Return Fund 
VIA AM

This winning fund is a best of selection of systematic strategies among 11 major investment banks and VIA AM itself. The fund has more than 30 different sub-strategies for most investment styles (equity long/short, CTA, carry, for example). Strategies are implemented synthetically with swaps and notes or directly. 

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Emerging manager of the year

* WINNER *

Trium Credere Fund
Credere Capital

Our winning fund employs an arbitrage and relative value strategy in the most attractive segments of credit and equity markets globally to generate returns by taking advantage of persistent mispricing with opportunities coming through changes in regulatory and legislative environment that are impacting banks’ balance sheets and the decisions they make around capital structure thus creating pricing distortions. 

Best directional hedge fund over five years 

* WINNER *

Value Active Fund 
Varenne Capital Partners

The winning fund generates long-term growth by participating in up markets and protecting in down markets. For example, fund performance in 2018 was down 1.96% showing the ability to protect and was up 32.07% in 2019.

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Best sub-$100m directional hedge fund five years

* WINNER *

Accendo Capital SICAV SIF
Accendo Capital

This winning fund invests in Northern European small cap companies where shareholder value is created through active ownership. The fund has a particular focus on companies that are driving, or benefitting from, technological innovation. It strives to be a dedicated, entrepreneurial shareholder that improves portfolio companies’ strategic clarity, financial understanding and interest alignment among owners, board and management. 

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Best sub-$100m non-directional hedge fund over five years 

* WINNER *

Perspective Investment Fund Limited
Perspective Investments

The principal investment objectives of this winning fund are to achieve higher returns with lower volatility and better capital preservation than conventional investment portfolios. The strategy is unconstrained, multi-asset and multi-strategy, focusing on capital allocation within a multi-dimensional framework, and by identifying diverse investment opportunities, including asset classes and investments that are difficult to source and invest in, and specialist alternative investment opportunities.

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Best non-directional hedge fund over five years

* WINNER *

Omni Event Fund Limited
Omni Partners LLP

This winning fund follows an actively managed, global event-driven approach. It invests primarily in equity and equity-related securities of companies undergoing significant corporate actions and other catalysts, predominantly within developed markets and differentiates itself from the broader event-driven peer group by focusing on the hard-catalyst end of the event spectrum and maintaining truly global focus.

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Best directional hedge fund over 10 years 

* WINNER *

Value Active Fund 
Varenne Capital Partners

This winner generates returns using four different investment frameworks, each one bringing unique return opportunities in different markets and economic configurations. Each of these frameworks benefits from its own specialised team, process and IT system.

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Best sub-$100m directional hedge fund over 10 years

* WINNER *

Vitruvius Growth Opportunities
Belgrave Capital Management 

The winning portfolio’s investment objective is to provide long term capital growth primarily through investment in shares of technology and communication companies on a global basis, primarily in securities of companies domiciled in developed countries but also companies domiciled in developing countries.

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Best non-directional hedge fund over 10 years

* WINNER *

Trafalgar Trading Fund
Trafalgar Capital

Our winner has an investment horizon that can be short-term in nature with opportunities ranging from a few days to a few weeks. The strategy tends to perform better in environments where market correlations are low, there is wide dispersion between stocks and sectors and stock returns are driven by stock specific factors.

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Best directional hedge fund over 20 years

* WINNER *

Diversified Trend Program - Enhanced Risk
Transtrend

Winning our anniversary category is a systematic investment manager that specialises in trend following. Its diversified trend program is designed to participate in these trends. 

Best equity strategy FoHF

* WINNER *

Long/Short Selection Lynx
Notz Stucki

    This winner constructs its portfolio selecting managers involved in bottom-up stocks picking (both long and short equities) within European equities unless there are better opportunities outside of Europe in certain sectors where there is no equivalent listing in Europe or for investing in a particular theme.

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Best multi-strategy FoHF

* WINNER *

HSBC Ucits AdvantEdge Fund
HSBC Alternative Investments Limited

    Our winning fund’s investment philosophy is to Identify the most talented managers in what the manager considers the best strategies globally. Manager selection is be one of the most important aspects of the hedge fund investment process.

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Best fixed income/credit FoHF

* WINNER *

Diversified Structured Credit Pool
Kempen Capital Management 

    The winning fund is a multi-manager fund that invests in a concentrated pool of long-only Structured Credit funds It invests in four underlying structured credit managers, with look-through exposure to CLOs (40%), RMBS (20%), consumer ABS (20%), CMBS (10%) and other ABS (5%). 

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Best managed futures CTA FoHF

* WINNER *

ACL Global Fund
Abbey Capital 

    The wining fund operates a strategy combining trend following strategies with uncorrelated non-trend following strategies. Trend following strategies have the attractive characteristic that historically tend to be negatively correlated to equities during equity-bear markets. 

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Best emerging manager focused FoHF

* WINNER *

Discovery Capital Holdings
Edmond de Rothschild Capital Holdings

    The winner has a portfolio made up of 18 emerging managers investing predominantly in equity strategies, both long and short and to a lesser extent in other strategies. The fund invests with managers who are in a development phase with relatively low assets under management, and in funds with limited performance history. 

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Best niche FoHF

* WINNER *

Stenham Cooper's Hawk
Stenham Advisors 

    This winning fund invests in 14 underlying managers across equity long/short sector specialists including healthcare, technology and utilities as well as discretionary global macro, relative value and merger arbitrage. While this fund is a concentrated multi-strategy and is diversified by strategies, a high percentage is invested with managers in healthcare, utilities, financials and TMT. 

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Best sub-$100m FoHF

* WINNER *

YRD Capital
G&R Advisors

    This winning fund is a systematic driven global investment fund that utilises traditional investment strategies in the emerging digital asset class. The investment team’s deep breadth of experience in professional financial services, coupled with a long-term systematic-driven approach.

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FoHF of the year 

* WINNER *

Long/Short Selection Lynx
Notz Stucki

    Our FoHF of the year runs a portfolio diversified across investment managers with different investment styles (market neutral, small/mid cap specialist, macro biased, directional, trading oriented or event-driven).The fund target return is 6%-10% with diversification across 16 managers.

Best specialist FoHF over five years

* WINNER *

ACL Global Fund
Abbey Capital

This winning fund’s main features include complete transparency with all positions available daily; daily dealing with no lockups, gates or redemption fees and a dedicated client services team among other features.

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Best sub-$100m specialist FoHF over five years

* WINNER *

Philae - Healthcare Biotech Fund
ITERAM

This winning structure invests in the healthcare sector, seeking to deliver an absolute return over a cycle while reducing the volatility inherent to an investment in the sector. The main edge is that the fund can count on its scientific and industrial advisory board with diverse backgrounds: industry, fundamental science, clinical and finance. 

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Best sub-$100m diversified FoHF over five years

* WINNER *

Aurum Synchronicity
Aurum Fund Management 

    This winning fund gives investors an opportunity to both make money and make a difference, as the management fee has provided over $9.5 million for more than 100 organisations in nearly 58 countries. It aims to achieve long-term growth with low volatility and low correlation to traditional asset classes by investing invests in liquid, trading oriented strategies.

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Best diversified FoHF over five years

* WINNER *

Phoenix AXA Master Fund
AXA Investment Managers

    This winning team uses the entire spectrum of hedge fund strategies pragmatically to fit the objectives and constraints of the portfolio. These include global macro, fixed income arbitrage, CTAs, equity market neutral, convertible arbitrage, volatility arbitrage, discretionary commodities, credit, event driven, and long/short equity.

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Best specialist FoHF over 10 years

* WINNER *

Man FRM Equity Alpha
Man FRM

The fund winning this award aims to deliver consistent absolute returns by investing in a concentrated portfolio of carefully selected quantitative managers. The key criteria in manager selection is an ability to generate attractive risk adjusted returns at a level of risk commensurate with the portfolio objectives. All the managers have a core quantitative approach. 

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Best sub-$100m specialist FoHF over 10 years

* WINNER *

Philae - Healthcare Biotech Fund
ITERAM

This winning fund’s portfolio is made up of healthcare sector specialists. Each manager has a differentiated investment approach to the sector with an overall focus on small and medium cap biotech companies. It takes a long-term investment approach and makes strategic and tactical allocations based on its convictions.

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Best sub-$100m diversified FoHF over 10 years

* WINNER *

Aurum Synchronicity Standard Dollar Restricted Class
Aurum Fund Management

    This winning portfolio is diversified by strategy, manager and investment style, enabling the fund to deliver stable and consistent positive returns. The fund aims to be a source of alpha generation by identifying and investing in a combination of top-tier multi-strategy funds as well as smaller, capacity constrained, niche funds. 

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Best diversified FoHF over 10 years

* WINNER *

PCAM Blue Chip Ltd
Prime Capital AG

This winning fund aims to deliver a diversified, well-balanced and all-weather portfolio of the world’s best-in-class hedge fund managers to investors. The fund has delivered strong performance since its inception in 2007, and even despite difficult market environments, has delivered 10 straight years of positive returns in a row, annualising at 6.47% net, with an annualised volatility of 4.58%. 

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Best specialist FoHF over 20 years

* WINNER *

Stenham Trading 
Stenham Advisors 

Our anniversary award winning fund employs a high conviction approach investing in global macro strategies, blending established and emerging managers. It invests predominantly in trading strategies including discretionary global macro, relative value, quantitative and commodity trading strategies. 

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Best diversified FoHF over 20 years

* WINNER *

Aurum Isis Fund
Aurum Fund Management 

This anniversary winner is a global multi-strategy fund that invests in a range of alternative investment strategies including multi-strategy, systematic, macro and event driven strategies. The portfolio is diversified by strategy, manager and investment style, enabling the fund to deliver stable and consistent positive returns. 

Best alternative Ucits distribution platform

* WINNER *

Lumyna Investments 

Our winner’s story began in 2007, first as the Merrill Lynch Investment Solutions alternative Ucits platform, 
a pioneer bringing event-driven, CTA and other alternative investment strategies to the Ucits marketplace for the first time. Now under the ownership of Generali, the platform is building on its institutional pedigree. Most recently it entered into a strategic partnership with Marshall Wace involving all commingled Ucits funds managed by Marshall Wace, resulting in a cross-border merger.

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Best incubator/accelerator/seeder

* WINNER *

Investcorp-Tages Limited

Investcorp-Tages provides seed capital to offshore hedge funds and absolute return Ucits funds on a locked and non-locked basis, including through dedicated seeding vehicles and, opportunistically, on a non-locked basis from other discretionary portfolios. In total Investcorp-Tages has invested over $1 billion across 22 funds over the past six years. 

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Best new hedge fund

* WINNER *

World Carbon Fund
Carbon Cap Management 

This new fund’s mission is to raise awareness about climate change and to provide solutions directly related to the capping and reduction of carbon dioxide emissions. The fund invests across multiple carbon markets, deploying two complementary strategies: core long generating returns from a rising carbon price combined with disciplined risk management and alpha strategies, generating returns from arbitrage and relative value strategies deployed across physical carbon, futures and options.

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Best new alternative Ucits FoHF

* WINNER *

ASI HFRI-I Liquid Alternatives Ucits Fund
Aberdeen Standard Investments

This new FoHF has 194 underlying Ucits funds investing across the alternative investment strategies universe, including equity hedge, event driven and relative value arbitrage that meet the index criteria. It was launched to take advantage of a gap in the market and an opportunity to bring an innovative product to market in the hedge fund sector. 

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Best ESG/SRI management company

* WINNER *

Candriam

Naïm Abou-Jaoudé, CEO of Candriam said: “Achieving the Paris Agreement and delivering the UN Sustainable Development Goals will require a rewiring of the financial system to meet the long-term needs of our economies and societies.” This is at the heart of Candriam’s focus on how investors can accelerate climate action with positive social impact. As a global sustainable and multi-asset focused investment manager it is a pioneer in sustainable and responsible investment (SRI) since 1996 and is a signatory (2006) of the UN-PRI. Candriam engages with companies in order to raise their awareness about ESG issues.

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Best investor relations

* WINNER *

Nick McEwen 
Partner 
Kite Lake Capital Management

 Our winner is an asset management firm based in London specialising in hard-catalyst event-driven investments in equities and credit. It was set up in 2010, launched by 2 former Cheyne Capital executives. Nick McEwen, former chief exec of OVS Capital Management, joined in 2014 and runs the sales and marketing effort. The judging panel believe McEwen gives an outstanding service to investors, with timely and detailed responses, giving them all the facts.

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Best group

* WINNER *

Abbey Capital

Abbey has been a fixture in Dublin as an alternative investment manager specialising in manging multi-manager portfolios in managed futures since 2000. Its focus is exclusively on analysing and selecting managers in the managed futures sector. Since its founding, it has built an experienced team and infrastructure designed to manage multi-manager portfolios in managed futures. It offers private placement funds, mutual funds and customised solutions. Since its creation, Abbey has grown to become the world's largest manager of multi-manager managed futures funds with an investor base stretching throughout North America, Europe and Asia. It works with pension funds, foundations, endowments, charities, broker-dealers, registered investment advisors, multi-family offices and clients of major private banks.

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Rising star

* WINNER *

Michael Cowley
Chief investment officer
Sandbar Asset Management

Our rising star 2020, immediately before founding Sandbar, was a portfolio manager at Millennium Capital Partners where he was managing a global equities long/short portfolio within strict market neutral parameters. He began his investment career in 2006 managing a similar strategy at Citadel. He has worked in the financial services sector for over a decade on both the buyside and sellside. He founded Sandbar in 2017 as the culmination of a long and successful career of market neutral equity investing.

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Best female fund manager

* WINNER *

Elif Aktuğ 
Fund Manager, Agora
Pictet Asset Management

Our second winner of best female fund manager, Elif Aktuğ, joined Pictet Asset Management in 2011 and is head of the total return agora team and lead manager of the Agora strategy. Before joining Pictet, she spent 13 years with Goldman Sachs, including 10 in a senior proprietary investing role before becoming head of the European equities long/short book (2010). She started her career in 1997 as an analyst for Goldman Sachs' investment banking division.
Under her leadership, the Pictet TR-Agora fund has performed exceptionally well against industry peers, now one of the largest European equity market neutral Ucits funds. To support the management of the Agora strategy, she has built a solid, stable and cohesive team. 

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Outstanding contribution to the industry by an institutional investor

* WINNER *

Ian McKnight
Chief Investment Officer
Royal Mail Pension Plan

This year’s winner has a passion for hedge funds. “We are, what I would call, the ‘second wave’ of hedge fund investors. The trustees had rejected the idea of them initially, as they had only really considered funds-of-hedge funds. When we addressed the matter …we wanted a more thematic, concentrated approach,” he was reported as saying. 

Before Royal Mail, he was an investment consultant for over 10 years with Watson Wyatt (now Willis Towers Watson), KPMG and Morgan Stanley. Speaking about his current position, he said: “One thing to always remember is that you are a risk manager: you're managing pension risk, and you want to give the highest degree of certainty that these pensions can be paid to your members. That kind of focus really sharpens the mind but you also need to take some risk to get you there and balancing those two is difficult.”

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Lifetime achievement (FoHF)

* WINNER *

Kevin Arenson
Chief investment officer
Stenham Asset Management

Our lifetime winner from the FoHF sector has 29 years investment experience with 23 of them spent at Stenham Asset Management. He is chairman of the investment advisory committee and responsible for the research and investment processes across the full range of Stenham funds. While at Stenham he has launched numerous funds across a range of strategies and has been instrumental in broadening the scope of investors from high net worth individuals to a variety of institutional clients. Prior to joining Stenham, Kevin’s previous roles included a senior portfolio manager at Liberty Asset Management, responsible for managing pension fund portfolios, as well as responsible for managing a private client investment division of Old Mutual International.

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Lifetime achievement (single manager)

* WINNER *

Martin Hunt
Co-founder and chairman
Winton Capital

As a co-founder of Winton Capital, our winner is an established name in the systematic world. He has spent most of his career working with Winton chief executive David Harding with a focus on the firm’s quantitative trading systems. He has been a director of Winton since 2001 and is chairman of the Winton Fund. As reported in the Financial Times, one of his more non-hedge fund activities is racing two Frazer-Nashes – an Austin-Healey and an AC Cobra. While he says he is aware of their investment potential, he says this is not why he has them. “I got them because I think they are wonderful, beautiful things and wanted to race them. People call them non-interest-bearing investments, but they are: I take out my interest in enjoyment.”

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Outstanding contribution to the industry

* WINNER *

Jean-Philippe Bouchaud
Chairman 
CFM

A French physicist and founder and chairman of Capital Fund Management (CFM), our winner is one of the best-known figures in the hedge fund world. Born in Paris, he studied at the French Lycée in London and graduated from École Normale Supérieure in 1985, working on his PhD at the Laboratory of Hertzian Spectroscopy, studying spin-polarized quantum gases with Claire Lhuillier. He spent a year at the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge in 1992 before joining the Laboratory of Condensed Matter Physics of the French Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies Commission. A pioneer in econophysics, he co-founded the company Science et Finance in 1994, later merged with CFM in 2000. After teaching statistical mechanics for 10 years at ESPCI, he was appointed in 2009 as an adjunct Professor at École Polytechnique and now teaches a course From Statistical Mechanics to Social Sciences at École Normale Supérieure. His work covers the physics of disordered and glassy systems, granular materials, the statistics of price formation, stock market fluctuations and the modelling of financial risks. He has repeatedly criticized the dogma of the efficient-market hypothesis and the methodology of economics and mathematical finance, in particular the use of the Black–Scholes model which leads to a systematic underestimation of risk in options trading. 

Outstanding contribution to promotion of ESG and SRI within hedge fund industry

* WINNER *

Adam Sweidan
Chief investment officer 
Aurum Funds

Adam Sweidan has been investing in the alternative investment market for more than 20 years. He is a founding member and chief investment officer of Aurum Research. In 1995 he formed a partnership with Jessica Sweidan to create a philanthropic foundation, Synchronicity Foundation. In 2007 they began exploring how to have a greater impact within the conservation realm and decided to start a new charity, Synchronicity Earth, which launched in November 2009. More recently (along with Jessica Sweidan) he has been appointed an IUCN Patron of Nature. Patrons of Nature play a key role in advising IUCN’s top management on a wide range of strategic issues related to IUCN’s work, as well as helping to raise the visibility of IUCN, strengthen their funding base and reach out to decision makers. In March 2015 the were appointed as honorary conservation fellows at the Zoological Society of London.
ESG is part of Aurum’s business philosophy on the simple basis that “generating long-term sustainable returns is dependent on environmental, social and economic factors” and that “a business that is not in harmony with the ecosystem within which it functions is doomed to fail”. 

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Editor’s choice individual contribution to hedge fund industry

* WINNER *

Luke Ellis 
CEO
Man Group 

Luke Ellis is a name known throughout the hedge fund world. He is known for his keen insights and ability to explain complex topics in easy to understand terms –  most recently saying that fighting day traders is like playing poker for the first time with an unknown opponent. As CEO he leads the firm’s executive committee, working with teams across investment, distribution, technology and infrastructure, while seeking to deliver the right outcomes for clients and positioning Man Group to adapt to opportunities as markets evolve. He is also the deputy chairman of the Standards Board for Alternative Investments (SBAI), and chair of the Board of Trustees for Greenhouse Sports. He joined Man Group in 2010 and was previously president of the firm, responsible for management across investment engines. Prior to this, he was chairman of Man GLG’s multi-manager activities and was managing director of Man FRM from 1998 to 2008. Previously he was a managing director at JP Morgan in London and global head of the firm’s equity derivatives and equity proprietary trading businesses. He says his interest in finance begun betting on horses.

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Editor’s choice lifetime contribution to hedge fund industry

* WINNER *

Ewan Kirk 
President
GAM Systematic 
(formally Cantab Capital Partners)

As co-founder of Cantab Capital Partners in 2006, Ewan Kirk quickly became a part of the quantitative hedge fund scene. Now part of GAM Systematic (since October 2016), his focus has been on research and development, risk management and managing the Cantab quant team. Prior to founding Cantab, he ran the Goldman Sachs strategies group in Europe where responsible for all of Goldman Sachs’ quant technology. He holds a PhD in mathematics (general relativity) from the University of Southampton. In addition to his hedge fund involvement, he is a technology entrepreneur, chairman of the management committee of the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences. He is a seed investor in start-ups in Cambridge and London and is  active in philanthropy since 2007.Alongside his wife, he founded the Turner-Kirk Charitable Trust, which supports STEM, education and conservation causes. It funds the Kirk Distinguished Fellowship Programme for female mathematicians and the Turner-Kirk Visiting Fellowship Programme to bring leading mathematicians to Cambridge. In 2015 the couple provided a £5m gift to the University of Cambridge to establish the Cantab Capital Institute for the Mathematics of Information.

Best long short equity hedge fund

Bodenholm Fund

Bodenholm Capital

Best fundamental growth value hedge fund

MontLake Ronit Global Opportunities Ucits Fund

Ronit Capital

Best event driven hedge fund

MontLake Mygale Event Driven Ucits Fund

Tavira Securities

Best global macro hedge fund

North MaxQ Macro Fund

North Asset Management

Best fixed income/credit/distressed hedge fund

DB Platinum IV Selwood Market Neutral Credit

DWS Alternative Ucits

Best private credit/non-bank lending hedge fund

Fasanara Alternative Credit Fund

Fasanara Capital

Best managed futures/CTA hedge fund

Candriam Diversified Futures

Candriam

Best emerging markets focused hedge fund

MontLake Ronit Global Opportunities Ucits Fund

Ronit Capital

Best multi-strategy hedge fund

Episteme Systematic Quest

Episteme Capital

Best alternative risk premia hedge fund

LFIS Vision – Premia Opportunities

LFIS

Best niche hedge fund

Ress Life Investments

Resscapital

Best sub-$100m hedge fund

SteppenWolf Swarm

SteppenWolf Capital

Hedge fund of the year

The Keynes Leveraged Quantitative Strategies Fund

QMA Wadhwani

Best long/short equity hedge emerging manager hedge fund

Bodenholm Fund

Bodenholm Capital

Best macro/CTA emerging manager hedge fund

River and Mercantile Investments Global Macro Fund

River and Mercantile Investments

Best relative value/fixed income emerging manager hedge fund

Trium Credere Fund

Credere Capital

Best cryptocurrency/blockchain emerging manager hedge fund

Bletchley Park Asset Management Feeder 1

Bletchley Park Asset Management

Emerging manager hedge fund of the year

Bayforest Innovation

Bayforest Technologies

Best directional hedge fund over five years

Alcentra Structured Credit Opportunity Fund II

Alcentra

Best sub-$100m directional hedge fund five years

Cyril Systematic

John Locke Investments

Best non-directional hedge fund over five years

LFIS Vision – Premia Opportunities

LFIS

Best directional hedge fund over 10 year

AHL Evolution Programme

Man AHL

Best sub-$100m directional hedge fund over 10 years

DB Platinum Quantica Managed Futures Focus

DWS Alternative Ucits

Best non-directional hedge fund over 10 years

Trafalgar Trading Fund

Trafalgar Capital Management

Best equity hedge FoHF

FRM Equity Alpha

Man FRM

Best multi-strategy FoHF

Candriam World Alternative Alphamax

Candriam

Best niche FoHF

Alpinum SICAV-SIF- Alternative Investments Fund

Alpinum Investment Management

Best sub-$100m FoHF

AlphaBee Asset Management Fund - Mongoose

AlphaBee Asset Management

FoHF of the year

Candriam World Alternative Alphamax

Candriam

Best specialist FoHF over five years

Long/Short Selection – Lynx

Notz Stucki

Best sub-$100m specialist FoHF over five years

Philae – Healthcare Biotech Fund

ITERAM

Best sub-$100m diversified FoHF over five years

Aurum Synchronicity Standard Dollar Restricted Class

Aurum Fund Management

Best diversified FoHF over five years

Phoenix AXA Master Fund

AXA Investment Managers UK

Best specialist FoHF over 10 years 10

FRM Equity Alpha

Man FRM

Best sub-$100m specialist FoHF over 10 years

Philae – Healthcare Biotech Fund

ITERAM

Best diversified FoHF over 10 years

PCAM Blue Chip

Prime Capital

Best overall hedge fund/fund distribution platform

Lumyna

Lumyna Investments

Best alternative Ucits distribution platform

MontLake Ucits Platform ICAV

MontLake Management

Best institutional investment advisor

Sussex Partners

Best seeder

Tages Capital

Best ESG/SRI management company

Aurum Fund Management

Best investor relations

Marshall Wace

Best group

Marshall Wace

Best female fund manager

Anne-Sophie d’Andlau and Catherine Berjal

CIAM

Rising star

Anirudh Singh

Aptior Capital

Outstanding contribution to the industry by an institutional investor

Elaina Elzinga

Wellcome Trust

Lifetime achievement

Pierre Lagrange

Man Group

Best long/short equity hedge fund
Man GLG Alpha Select Alternative
Man GLG

Best event driven hedge fund
MLIS York Asian Event-Driven Ucits Fund (York Capital Management)
Merrill Lynch Investment Solutions Ucits Platform (Bank of America Merrill Lynch)

Best global macro hedge fund
Episteme Systematic Quest Composite
Episteme Capital

Best fixed income hedge fund
Astra Structured Credit Investments Limited
Astra Asset Management

Best credit/distressed hedge fund
Clareant Structured Credit Opportunity Fund II
Alcentra

Best managed futures/CTA hedge fund
OmniTrend
Transtrend

Best energy/commodities hedge fund
Andurand Commodities Fund
Andurand Capital Management

Best alternative risk premia hedge fund
LFIS Vision – Premia Opportunities
La Française Investment Solutions (LFIS)

Best sub-$100m hedge
QQM Equity Hedge
QQM Fund Management

Hedge fund of the year (chosen from the above categories excluding sub-$100m)
Man GLG Alpha Select Alternative
Man GLG

Best long/short equity hedge emerging manager
Bodenholm Fund
Bodenholm Capital

Best managed futures/CTA emerging manager
GreshamQuant ACAR Fund
Gresham Investment Management

Best cryptocurrency/blockchain emerging manager
Altana Digital Currency Fund
Altana Wealth

Emerging manager of the year
GreshamQuant ACAR Fund
Gresham Investment Management

Best directional hedge fund over five years (July 1, 2013 - June 30, 2018)
AHL Evolution Programme
Man AHL

Best sub-$100m directional hedge fund over five years (July 1, 2013 - June 30, 2018)
Alegra ABS Two (Euro) Fund
Alegra Capital (Lie)

Best non-directional hedge fund over five years (July 1, 2013 - June 30, 2018)
Agora Fund
Pictet Asset Management

Best directional hedge fund over 10 years (July 1, 2008 - June 30, 2018)
AHL Evolution Programme
Man AHL

Best non-directional hedge fund over 10 years (July 1, 2008 - June 30, 2018)
The Observatory Credit Markets Fund
Observatory Capital Management

Best equity hedge FoHF
Discovery Capital Holdings
Edmond de Rothschild Capital Holdings

Best multi-strategy FoHF
Kempen Orange Investment Partnership
Kempen Capital Management

Best emerging markets focused FoHF
Asian Capital Holdings
Edmond de Rothschild Capital Holdings

Best fixed income/credit FoHF
Pictet Alternative Funds – Pleiad Credit Opportunities
Pictet Alternative Advisors

Best global macro FoHF
Stenham Trading
Stenham Advisors

Best sub-$100m FoHF
Philae – Healthcare Biotech Fund
ITERAM Hottinger & Cie

European FoHF of the year
ACL Alternative Fund
Abbey Capital

Best specialist FoHF over five years (July 1, 2013 - June 30, 2018)
Prima Capital Fund
Fundana

Best sub-$100m specialist FoHF over five years (July 1, 2013 - June 30, 2018)
Stenham Healthcare
Stenham Advisors

Best diversified FoHF over five years (July 1, 2013 - June 30, 2018)
AXA IM All Weather
AXA Investment Managers UK

Best sub-$100m diversified FoHF over five years (July 1, 2013 - June 30, 2018)
Aurum Multi Strategy Fund Standard Dollar Restricted
Aurum Fund Management

Best specialist FoHF over 10 years (July 1, 2008 - June 30, 2018)
Nippon Selection Holdings
Belgrave Capital Management

Best diversified FoHF over 10 years (July 1, 2008 - June 30, 2018)
PCAM Blue Chip
Prime Capital

Best new hedge fund
GAM Kimura Commodity Trade Finance Fund
Kimura Capital

Best new alternative Ucits fund
Altana Director Alignment Strategy Ucits
Altana Wealth

Best investor relations team
Florin Court
Florin Court Capital

Best ESG/SRI management company
Man Group

Best group
Tages Capital

Rising star
Alistair Milne
Altana Wealth

Outstanding contribution to the industry by an institutional investor
Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan
London office

Lifetime achievement
Patrik Brummer
Chairman
Brummer & Partners

Outstanding contribution to the industry
Gavyn Davies
Co-Founder and Chairman
Fulcrum Asset Management

Best equity hedge fund
Lansdowne European Equity Fund (Lansdowne Partners (UK))

Best event driven hedge fund
Portland Hill Overseas Fund (Portland Hill Asset Management)

Best global macro hedge fund
Candriam Global Alpha (Candriam Investors Group)

Best fixed income hedge fund
Asgard Fixed Income Fund (MOMA Advisors)

Best credit/distressed hedge fund
Clareant Structured Credit Opportunity Fund II (Alcentra)

Best volatility hedge fund
Allianz Structured Alpha Strategy (Allianz Global Investors)

Best managed futures/CTA hedge fund
Insch Kintore (Insch Capital Management)

Best foreign exchange hedge fund
Citi Macro Access: Hathersage G10 Macro Access Strategy (Hathersage Capital Management)

Best multi-strategy hedge fund
GLG Market Neutral Fund (Man GLG)

Best alternative Ucits fund
MLIS York Asian Event-Driven Ucits Fund (York Capital Management)

Best sub-$100m alternative Ucits fund
MLIS Zeal Greater China Long Short Ucits Fund (Zeal Asset Management)

Best sub-$100m hedge
Peak Core Strategies (Peak AM Alternative Investments)

Hedge fund of the year
MLIS York Asian Event-Driven Ucits Fund (York Capital Management)

Best equity hedge emerging manager
Monterone Partners Long Short Fund (Monterone Partners)

Best event driven emerging manager
Melqart Opportunities Fund (Melqart Asset Management)

Best managed futures/CTA emerging manager
SteppenWolf Systematic Intelligence (SteppenWolf Capital)

Best global macro emerging manager
EDL Global Opportunities Fund (EDL Capital)

Best fixed income/credit emerging manager
Nordkinn Fixed Income Macro Fund (Nordkinn Asset Management)

Best multi-strategy emerging manager
Peak Core Strategies (Peak AM Alternative Investments)

Emerging manager of the year
Monterone Partners Long Short Fund (Monterone Partners)

Best directional hedge fund over five years
Alken Capital Fund - One (Alken Asset Management)

Best non-directional hedge fund over five years
Trafalgar Trading Fund (Trafalgar Capital Management)

Best directional hedge fund over 10 years
TT International Mid-Cap Europe Fund (TT International Investment Management)

Best non-directional hedge fund over 10 years
Asgard Fixed Income Fund (MOMA Advisors)

Best new hedge fund
Islandbridge Opportunities Fund (Islandbridge Capital)

Best new alternative Ucits
MLIS Millburn Diversified Ucits Fund (Millburn Ridgefield Corporation

Best new FoHF
FQS Alternatives Multi Manager Quant Series (FQS Capital Partners)

Most innovative new hedge fund
Aberdeen Alternative Risk Premia Enhanced Fund (Aberdeen Asset Management)

Best investor relations team
Markham Rae

Best ESG/SRI hedge fund management company
BlueBay Asset Management

Best ESG/SRI FoHF management company
Aurum Fund Management

Best hedge fund group
La Française Investment Solutions

Best overall asset management group
Kairos Investment Management

Rising star
Jonathan Cohen
Managing Partner & CIO
RoboCap

Outstanding contribution to the industry by an institutional investor
Chris Rule
Chief Investment Officer
Local Pensions Partnership

Lifetime achievement
Nicola Meaden Grenham
Director
Dumas Capital

Outstanding contribution to the industry
Andrew McCaffery
Global head of alternatives 
Aberdeen Asset Management

Best equity hedge FoHF
Pictet World Equity Hedge (Pictet Alternative Advisors)

Best diversified FoHF
Kempen Non-Directional Partnership (Kempen Capital Management)

Best fixed income FoHF
Stenham Credit Opportunities (Stenham Asset Management)

Best multi-strategy FoHF
Mosaic (Pictet Alternative Advisors)

Best emerging markets FoHF
Asian Capital Holdings (Edmond de Rothschild Capital Holdings)

Best emerging manager FoHF
Prima Capital Fund (Fundana)

Best sub-$250m FoHF
Ferrum Fund Equity Hedge (Feri Trust)

European FoHF of the year
Asian Capital Holdings (Edmond de Rothschild Capital Holdings)

Best specialist FoHF over five years
Kedge Capital Equity Opportunities (Kedge Capital Fund Management)

Best diversified FoHF over five years
HSBC GH Fund (HSBC Alternative Investments Limited (HAIL)

Best specialist FoHF over 10 years 
Trading Capital Holdings (Edmond de Rothschild Capital Holdings)

Best diversified FoHF over 10 years
AXA IM All Weather (AXA Investment Managers UK)

Best platform
Deutsche Bank Liquid Alternatives Platform (Deutsche Bank)

Best Ucits platform
Merrill Lynch Investment Solutions Ucits Platform (Bank of America Merrill Lynch)

Best seeder
Tages Capital

Best long/short equity hedge fund
UBS Equity Opportunity Long Short (UBS Asset Management)

Best event driven hedge fund
Cygnus Europa Event Driven Fund (Cygnus Asset Management)

Best global macro hedge fund
Gemsstock Fund (Gemsstock)

Best fixed income hedge fund
Napier Park European Credit Opportunities Fund (Napier Park Global Capital)

Best credit hedge fund
Clareant Global Special Situations Fund (Alcentra)

Best equity market neutral hedge fund
Agora Fund (Pictet Asset Management)

Best volatility hedge fund
v-Pro Dynamic (Quaesta Capital)

Best managed futures/CTA hedge fund
Aspect Diversified Programme (Aspect Capital)

Best foreign exchange hedge fund
dbSelect Hathersage Long Term Currency Strategy (Hathersage Capital Management)

Best Asia focused hedge fund
Trafalgar Trading Fund (Trafalgar Capital)

Best multi-strategy hedge fund
LFIS Vision - Premia Opportunities (La Française Investment Solutions)

Best niche strategy hedge fund
CS IRIS Balanced (Credit Suisse)

Best sub-$100m
Accendo Capital (Accendo Capital Managers)

Hedge fund of the year
dbSelect Hathersage Long Term Currency Strategy (Hathersage Capital Management)

Best event driven emerging manager
Portland Hill Fund Sicav - Catalyst Driven Strategy (Portland Hill Capital Management)

Best global macro emerging manager
LiquidAlts Frere Hall (Deutsche Bank)

Best multi-strategy emerging manager
Fasanara Capital Attractive Global Opportunities (Fasanara Capital)

Best fixed income/credit emerging manager
Palmerston Credit Fund (Palmerston Capital Management)

Best managed futures/CTA emerging manager
Rcube Systematic Alpha Fund (Rcube Asset Management)

Best niche strategy emerging manager
Elementa

Emerging manager of the year
Palmerston Credit Fund (Palmerston Capital Management)

Best directional hedge fund over three years: equity
City Financial Absolute Equity Fund (City Financial Investment)

Best directional hedge fund over three years: fixed income
Alegra ABS I (Euro) Fund (Alegra Capital)

Best directional hedge fund over three years: multi-strategy/macro
North MaxQ Macro Fund (North Asset Management)

Best directional hedge fund over three years: managed futures/CTA
Lyxor Epsilon Global Trend Fund (Lyxor Asset Management)

Best non-directional hedge fund over three years: equity
Agora Fund (Pictet Asset Management)

Best non-directional hedge fund over three years: fixed income
Lyxor/Ellington Fund (Lyxor Asset Management)

Best non-directional hedge fund over three years: multi-strategy
Chenavari Credit Trading MS2 (Chenavari Credit Partners)

Best non-directional hedge fund over three years: event driven
Cygnus Europa Event Driven Fund (Cygnus Asset)

Best directional hedge fund over 10 years: equity
Camelot (Lancelot Asset Management)

Best directional hedge fund over 10 years: managed futures/CTA and macro
North MaxQ Macro Fund (North Asset Management)

Best non-directional hedge fund over 10 years
Nektar (Nektar Asset Management)

Best equity hedge alternative Ucits fund
DB Platinum IV Clinton Equity Strategies (Deutsche Bank)

Best macro alternative Ucits fund
Epsilon Global Trend (Lyxor Asset Management)

Best sub-$100m alternative Ucits fund
Belgravia Lynx (Auriga Global Investors Sociedad de Valores)

Alternative Ucits fund of the year
Epsilon Global Trend (Lyxor Asset Management)

Best new hedge fund
Elementa

Best investor relations team
Old Mutual Global Investors

Best hedge fund website/online presence
Winton Global Investment Management

Best ESG/SRI hedge fund
Auriel Absolute Return Strategy (Auriel Capital)

Best group
Pictet Asset Management

Best new hedge fund manager
Christina McGuire
Aperios Partners Investment Management

Outstanding contribution to the industry by an institutional investor
Roy Kuo
Church Commissioners for England

Lifetime achievement
David Anderson
Insch Capital Management

Outstanding contribution to the industry
Martin Lueck and Anthony Todd
Aspect Capital

Best diversified FoHF
Falcon MM Relative Value Fund (Falcon Money Management)

Best managed futures/CTA FoHF
LGT Crown Managed Futures Sub-Fund (LGT Capital Partners)

Best niche FoHF
ACL Alternative Fund (Abbey Capital)

Best sub-$250m specialist FoHF
R Opal Global Trading A (Rothschild Asset Management)

European FoHF of the year
ACL Alternative Fund (Abbey Capital)

Best specialist FoHF over three years
LGT Crown Distressed Credit Opportunities (LGT Capital Partners)

Best specialist sub-$250m FoHF over three years
Stenham Healthcare (Stenham Advisors)

Best diversified sub-$250m FoHF over three years
Kairos Multi-Strategy (Kairos Investment Management)

Best diversified FoHF over three years
PCAM Blue Chip (Prime Capital)

Best specialist FoHF over 10 years
Trading Capital Holdings (Edmond de Rothschild Capital Holdings)

Best specialist sub-$250m FoHF over 10 years
R Opal Global Trading (Rothschild Asset Management)

Best diversified sub-$250m FoHF over 10 years
Culross Global Fund (Culross Global Investment Management)

Best diversified FoHF over 10 years
Brummer Multi-Strategy (Brummer & Partners)

Best specialist FoHF over 15 years
LGT Crown Managed Futures Sub-Fund (LGT Capital Partners)

Best specialist sub $250m FoHF over 15 years
Culross Arbitrage Fund (Culross Global Investment Management)

Best diversified sub $250m FoHF over 15 years
Culross Global Fund (Culross Global Investment)

Best diversified FoHF over 15 years
Edmond de Rothschild Prifund Alpha Uncorrelated (Edmond de Rothschild)

Best managed accounts platform
Deutsche Bank Liquid Alternatives Platform (Deutsche Bank)

Best Ucits platform
Merrill Lynch Investment Solutions Ucits Platform (Bank of America Merrill Lynch International)

Best seeder
Tages Emerging Opportunities Fund I & LFP Absolute Return Selection (Tages Capital)

Best overall platform
Deutsche Bank Liquid Alternatives Platform (Deutsche Bank)

Best bespoke FoHF provider
Tages Capital

Best institutional FoHF provider
AXA Investment Managers

Best HNWI/private client FoHF provider
HSBC Alternative Investments

Best new FoHF\
Goldman Sachs Global Multi-Manager Alternatives Portfolio (Goldman Sachs Asset Management)

Most innovative FoHF
Evolution (Lyxor Asset Management)

Best investor relations team
Aodhagán Hurley
Abbey Capital

Best ESG/SRI FoHF
Aurum Fund Management

Best overall group
Goldman Sachs Asset Management

European FoHF rising star award
Salvatore Cordaro
Partner and chief investment officer
Tages Capital

Lifetime achievement award
Christopher Keen
Culross Global Investment

Outstanding contribution
Lionel Paquin
CEO
Lyxor Asset Management